CFP: Urban Appropriation Strategies Conference (Deadline July 31)

Mathilda Rosengren Discussion

Urban Appropriation Strategies Conference - Call for Speakers


Date: 4th November 2016
Submission of abstracts: 31st July 2016
Venue: Giesshaus - University of Kassel, Germany

The indeterminate, informal spaces of city living have always existed alongside the formal ones. The city can at once be a habitat of individual freedom and socio-cultural segregation, economic growth and destitution, democratic movements and oppressive regimes – and any phenomenon in between. We believe that the assessment of urban appropriation strategies may provide a means to uncover and unpick this ambivalent nature of the urban.

In European cities today, there is a prevalent notion that urban dwellers should have the right to public places, where the individual can unfold, create, play, dream or simply rest, and where established communities are strengthened and new ones are allowed to be made.

The growing demand from both individuals and local communities to be able to influence urban planning processes and the joint structuring of individual neighbourhoods reflects this notion. Ultimately, it touches on the pressing debate about how we are to create liveable and open-minded cityscapes for a growing and diverse urban population.

In this conference we would like to discuss a variety of perspectives on urban appropriation strategies, its relation to public space-making and its implications for future city development. What does urban appropriation involve outside its immediate spatiality? How does it link to ideas of appropriation of socio-cultural narratives, of politico-historical occasions as well as of nature and the more-than-human in urban landscapes?

We aim to explore this subject through interdisciplinary categories comprising architecture, European ethnology, human geography, urban ecology, sociology, landscape architecture and design research:

1) Urban appropriation strategies in the context of migration and refugee movements.

2) Appropriation of nature by the urban and appropriation of the urban by nature.

3) Appropriation as tool to create a new, citizen-centered social space in the city.

 
Programme
The one-day conference commences with a welcoming introduction from Prof. Dr. Stefanie Hennecke (Universität Kassel) followed by three consecutive panels (two before and one after lunch) and concludes with a roundtable discussion – bringing the three panels together. Each panel is devoted to one of the above-mentioned categories, consisting of 3-4 papers (no more than 20 minutes per paper).

The conference wants to emphasise an interdisciplinary dialogue, bridging the gap between theory and practice and thus encouraging a knowledge exchange between academics, planners and activists.

We are looking for contributions on theories of urban appropriation from different disciplines as well as accounts of individual, activist-related appropriation strategies, from academics, professionals, Early Career Researchers, PhD students and activists.


Abstract
Language: English.

400-500 words, plus. max. 4 pictures with captions and references as a word file by no later than 31.07.2016, exclusively by e-mail as .doc or .pdf with the subject: „conference urban appropriation strategies, category [...]“
 
For submission of abstracts or any other queries please contact: 
uas.conference@gmail.com

Please insert title, author, email address and information about the work or add research environment.
 
 
Fees
This conference is free of charge.


In cooperation with
Universität Kassel | Fachbereich Architektur Stadtplanung Landschaftsplanung (ASL) 
Technische Universität Berlin | Institut für Architektur | CODE | Construction + Design 
University of Copenhagen | Saxo Institute
University of Cambridge | Department of Geography

Categories

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